Meet Tim Gibb, Namlo’s new Program Manager

Tim has recently joined Namlo in an effort to build agriculture-based income generating projects in our rural communities and to further our long term efforts in the area of education. Tim’s experience in international development started in the Philippines where he was born to American parents working in the field of economic development. Since then Tim has worked for for a number of non-profits and NGOs in Asia and Latin America including the UNFAO, Winrock International and International Development Enterprises. Tim’s most recent endeavor was establishing and running the service-learning travel company Al Campo International (ACI). Tim’s management of ACI over the last 10 years enabled the company and its constituents to successfully implement several projects focused on nutrition, water quality and income generation in multiple villages across Nicaragua and Honduras. The most successful of these projects has been The Greenhouse Project, a project which has boosted family nutrition and household income in a very short period of time. By bringing Tim on board, Namlo International hopes to reproduce the success of The Greenhouse Project in its communities in Nicaragua and to capitalize on his experience in the area of voluntourism to build that aspect of our program in Nepal.

Namlo’s household greenhouse

Tim’s efforts have been motivated by his life-time exposure to the disparity of wealth he has seen in the world but his approach is one based in free-market principles and social enterprise. The idea of asking poor people to contribute financially to their projects has long been frowned upon by the international community, but Tim’s approach to implementing projects that provide market-derived, sustainable income to the beneficiaries of the projects have shown that contributions by the poor not only improve the social impact of the project but enable the beneficiaries to capitalize on there investment over and over.

Tim’s favorite things to do when he gets a break from work are surfing in Nicaragua and SCUBA diving in the Philippines but Colorado is still home and at the top of his list for ‘best places in the world to live.’